The narcissism of minor differences : how America and Europe are alike : an essay in numbers / Peter Baldwin.
"There is much heated rhetoric about the widening gulf between Europe and America. According to the American Right, Europeans are lazy, defeatist, and irreligious, whereas Americans are entrepreneurial, optimistic, and pious. And according to Europeans, America is harsh, dominated by the market...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Oxford ; New York :
Oxford University Press,
2009.
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| Summary: | "There is much heated rhetoric about the widening gulf between Europe and America. According to the American Right, Europeans are lazy, defeatist, and irreligious, whereas Americans are entrepreneurial, optimistic, and pious. And according to Europeans, America is harsh, dominated by the market, crime ridden, violent, and sharp elbowed." "But are the United States and Europe so different? Peter Baldwin, one of the world's leading historians of comparative social policy, thinks not, and in this bracingly argued but remarkably informed polemic, he lays out how similar the two continents really are. Drawing on the latest evidence from sources such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the IMF, the OECD, and other international organizations, Baldwin offers a fascinating comparison of the United States and Europe, looking at the latest statistics on the economy, crime, health care, education and culture, religion, the environment, and much more." "It is a book filled with surprising revelations. For most categories of crime, for instance, America is safe and peaceful by European standards. But the biggest surprise is that, though there are many differences between America and Europe, in almost all cases, these differences are no greater than the differences among European nations. Europe and the United States are, in fact, part of a common, big-tent grouping." "America is not Sweden, for sure. But nor is Italy Sweden, nor France, nor even Germany. And who says that Sweden is Europe? Anymore than Vermont is America?" --Book Jacket. |
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| Physical Description: | x, 321 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780195391206 (hardback : alk. paper) 0195391209 |